Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics: the selected works of Ivor F. Goodson
Long Waves of Educational Reform
But if the matrix of schooling that began to change radically after 1981 was a part of the picture preceding the new conjuncture of the mid-1990s, the major catalyst was the launching of standards-based reforms. As we saw, this movement emerged in the late 1980s as part of a growing world movement to transform schooling in new ways. In Bradford, the school district had to respond to new state initiatives. In the late 1980s, the state extended its mandated competence tests from three to five subjects, and in 1990 to six. In 1990, they also extended required credits for graduates from 20.5 in 1986 to 23.5 for pupils entering in 1991.
In the period following 1995, a new testing regime was put in place, tied to the State’s new standards-based reforms. Student graduation was thereby linked to passing standardized tests in the assessed subjects. In Bradford, school students who entered Year 9 in 1998 will have to pass four out of five examinations with a minimum score of 55 in order to graduate. Pupils entering a year later must pass all five examinations at the same standard. For Year 9 students entering in 2000, the standard was increased to 65 in three of the exams, and by 2001 to all five-subject exams. These are truly ‘high stakes’ assessments because schools and districts are being ranked across the state by their test scores, with public report cards of the results.
In Sheldon, the ‘fall from grace’ began in 1980 as we saw. With the restructuring of secondary schools and the new magnet program, ‘school spirit’ and the student body changed as Sheldon became a ‘dumping ground’ for those who failed to get into the magnet school. When this happened, not only were teachers sent to Sheldon against their will, so were the students. The results were less school pride and less academic achievement.
By 1994, as standards-based reform began to bite, Superintendent Vega seriously considered naming Sheldon a ‘priority school’ because of its academic failures and high dropout rate. By the end of the decade, Sheldon was a school named on a state list as in need of ‘improvement’. One teacher commented: “we used to have some really bright kids that went through this building; we had some excellent students. But things are not what they used to be.” This teacher attributed the change in academic ability of his students to the ‘dumbing down’ of the curriculum because of the new high-stakes tests and because the magnet schools continued to attract the better students in the district. One Sheldon teacher summarized the effects of standards-based tests by saying “so much emphasis [was] put on the amount of material you’re supposed to cover that [all] you’re really doing is a skim job and it’s a question of quality versus quantity.” Another commented: “in terms of change…we no longer have a real strong nucleus…a real strong contingent of students who are at the upper levels. Now I’d say 75 per cent of our population are academically in trouble” (Sheldon High School Report).
